On March 3, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court rejected the attempt of the Democratic Party to substitute a new nominee for the special election, 197th district, State House, which occurs on March 21. See this story. The party will appeal to the State Supreme Court.
On February 28, Ricardo “Ricky” de la Fuente, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit against the California Secretary of State over his position on the ballot in the upcoming special election for U.S. House, 34th district. California uses a random procedure to determine order of candidates on the ballot. The Secretary of State considers the candidate’s surname to be “De La Fuente”. But the candidate says is actual surname is “Fuente” and the words “de la” in front of Fuente are not part of the surname. He also argues they should not be capitalized.
The ballot lists 23 candidates. If the plaintiff’s name were determined to start with a “D”, instead of “F”, he would be three places higher in the list, because in the random drawing, “D” was chosen ahead of “F.”
The case is Ricardo de la Fuente v Alex Padilla, superior court, Sacramento, 34-2017-80002546. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for this news.
Michigan independent gubernatorial candidate Todd Schleiger is already campaigning, even though the election is not until November 2018. See this story.
Michigan has never had an independent candidate for Governor on a government-printed ballot. The only other states for which that statement is also true are Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, and North Carolina. Schleiger will need 30,000 signatures, and he can only collect them in a six-month window of his choice.
One reason Michigan has never had a independent candidate for Governor on the ballot is that the state had no statutory procedures for independent candidates until 1988. Another reason is that the petition is as difficult as it is.
If Schleiger gets on the ballot, his campaign will be helped if the straight-ticket device is gone by 2018. The legislature repealed it in late 2015 but a court restored it on the 2016 ballot because the judge believed the straight-ticket device repeal injures black voters. The case is still pending in U.S. District Court, and the state recently filed its answer.
The Third Circuit will hold oral arguments in Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Cortes, 16-3266, on March 23, Thursday. The issue is the validity of Pennsylvania’s county distribution requirement for statewide minor party and independent petitions for state office.
On March 1, the North Carolina Senate Elections Committee passed HB 100, which converts trial court judicial elections from non-partisan to partisan. The bill had already passed the House.
